Musgrove throws first no-no in Padres history
San Diego Padres righthander Joe Musgrove pitched the first no-hitter in the history of his hometown team, allowing only one baserunner in a 3-0 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday night.
The Padres were the only active MLB franchise without a no-hitter, and it came in their 8,206th regular-season game — from a 28-year-old who grew up just down the road in El Cajon, California.
“It’s awesome to have it be in a Padres uniform,” said Musgrove, who had never thrown a no-hitter at any level. “To have it be the first in the history of the franchise, that’s incredible.”
In only his second start for San Diego, Musgrove (2-0) struck out 10 and faced 28 batters, one over the minimum.
The only Rangers baserunner was Joey Gallo, who was hit by a pitch with two outs in the fourth inning. Jose Trevino had a hard lineout to right field for the final out of the eighth, and David Dahl ripped the first out of the ninth right at second baseman Jake Cronenworth.
“There was like three different scenarios where I thought I lost it,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove (2-0), who threw 77 of his 112 pitches for strikes, is in his sixth major league season. He previously pitched for Houston (2016-17) and Pittsburgh (2018-20) and never had thrown a complete game in his previous 84 career starts.
“I’m freaking exhausted, man,” he said. “There was no way I was coming out of that game.”
It was the first no-hitter in the majors this season and only the second complete game.
The majors’ last no-hitter was thrown by the Chicago Cubs’ Alec Mills on Sept. 13, 2020 against Milwaukee. His catcher was Victor Caratini, who was also behind the plate for Musgrove.
San Diego acquired the big righty as part of a seven-player, three-team trade on Jan. 19. He pitched for Pittsburgh last season.
In his debut for San Diego, which came at home last Saturday, he struck out eight in six scoreless innings against Arizona. He had no walks in winning that game, when he threw 57 of 78 pitches for strikes.
It was the fourth time a nohitter was thrown against the Rangers. The last had been by Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox on April 18, 2007.
According to Baseball-Reference, there had been 307 nohitters in MLB history before Musgrove and the Padres. That included 293 individual no-hitters and 14 combined no-nos.
Wil Meyers put the Padres ahead to stay in the second inning with his RBI double.
Dodgers 1, Nationals 0 — Justin Turner homered in the sixth inning, and the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrated their World Series ring ceremony day with a victory.
Walker Buehler pitched six strong innings as the Dodgers won a tidy pitchers’ duel in their home opener without injured star outfielders Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger.
Joe Ross threw five scoreless innings of two-hit ball for the Nationals, who lost their third straight after starting the season late and shorthanded due to coronavirus cases and quarantines.
The Dodgers received their World Series championship rings in a pregame event in front of the fans who weren’t allowed inside Dodger Stadium in 2020 while their franchise won its seventh title. Clayton Kershaw, Betts and their teammates were cheered by a pandemiclimited sellout crowd of 15,036 while they got their jewelry at Chavez Ravine.
Giants 3, Rockies 1 — Johnny Cueto pitched 8M innings of four-hit ball, helping San Francisco win its home opener.
Cueto (1-0) allowed one run on Garrett Hampson’s sacrifice fly in the ninth. Jake McGee finished for his third save.
Brandon Crawford snapped a scoreless tie with a two-run double in the seventh. Alex Dickerson added an RBI single in the eighth for San Francisco.
American League
Rays 10, Yankees 5 — Rich Hill pitched six innings, helping Tampa Bay stop a fourgame slide.
Austin Meadows had three of the Rays’ 13 hits. Willy Adames and Joey Wendle each had two hits and two RBIs, and Brandon Lowe drove in three runs.
Hill (1-0), a 41-year-old lefty, allowed four runs and four hits.
Aaron Hicks and DJ LeMahieu homered for the Yankees. Corey Kluber (0-1) was charged with three earned runs and five hits in 2L innings.
The Rays’ home opener drew a socially-distanced crowd of 9,021 to Tropicana Field.
The Yankees played without slugger Aaron Judge, who sat out a second consecutive game with soreness in his left side. Gio Urshela was also out of the lineup after being placed on the COVID-19 injured list due to side effects from a vaccination.